Saving Seafood

FLORIDA: Key Largo Fisheries Credits Power Of Internet Sales With Their Survival

April 6, 2021 — A little more than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, we’re learning what worked well with some businesses to help them survive.

For Key Largo Fisheries, it was their website.

“We shipped a lot of stone crabs, fresh fish, Key West pink shrimp, whole tails, whole lobsters,” said Key Largo Fisheries’ Tom Hill.

Keeping the iconic fishery, market, and cafe in the northern Keys up and running had a lot to do with the internet sales.

“We were fortunate in that we were able to start serving people via the web, an awful lot of people looked at our website, taking lots of orders online,” said Hill.

Boxes of Key Largo Fisheries seafood shipped directly to their clients’ doorsteps which helped them expand.

Read the full story at CBS Miami

Coronavirus Impact: Florida FIshing Industry Smacked Hard By Pandemic

April 23, 2020 — The Florida fishing industry has been smacked hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 is the latest in a wave of major impacts on the $1.7 billion economic mainstay.

Tom Hill, owner and manager of the Key Largo Fisheries says, “The effect of Irma here and Michael up north and down here dealing with an algae bloom, as well as, the red tide.”

“Hurricanes you can wrap your head around, but the coronavirus is the silent hurricane.”

The fish wholesale and retail business is in flux as consumers shy away from perishables.

“…Have lost their ability to sell the fish to fishing houses, processors because they have no idea where to go to sell the stuff,” Hill says.

Those dealing within the Florida lobster business still have lobsters in tanks.

Read the full story at CBS Miami